Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes
Robin Jones Gunn
Reviewed by Teresa Konopka
Robin Jones Gunn’s “Sisterchicks in
Wooden Shoes” is an unusually life-like book for women. Amidst
all of
the drama and silly circumstances, the plot events are highly
plausible. Number eight in the Sisterchicks series, readers do
not
have to read the previous books to follow the story. In fact, not
all
of the Sisterchicks novels use the same characters; each book tends to
have a different story of women coming together in God. This
disappoints readers who, after discovering that Noelle and Summer are
finally meeting for the first time, realize there are no letters to
read from when they conversed as pen pals in an earlier book.
Anyway,
the story is enjoyable. Summer receives a call from a doctor
telling
her that she may have breast cancer. With a week before she needs
to
go in for a biopsy, she puts life on hold to finally see her pen pall
of forty years in the Netherlands. Living in denial, Summer lives
it
up in the hospitality of her friend. It is only towards the end of the
book that Summer opens up to Noelle about why she truly came.
Noelle
also opens up to Summer about her long-lasting feud with her
father.
Moving to Europe when she was eighteen, she has yet to speak wit her
father who violently resisted her leap of independence.
This
book reflects on the blessings of God. The few Bible quotations
that
are present are recited by the main characters. Some are even
paraphrased in rather facetious manners to relate better to what
situations the girls are in. Overall, both women become closer to
God
and help each other trust in His divine nature. Funny and sad all
at
the same time, this book is as bittersweet as the Dutch chocolate
lauded by Summer.